


The lone gun man

by NYWCgirl



Category: White Collar
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Manipulation, Mind Control, Non-Consensual Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-29
Updated: 2015-09-29
Packaged: 2018-04-23 23:39:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4896700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NYWCgirl/pseuds/NYWCgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Someone wants Peter dead, who better to use than his CI?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The lone gun man

**Author's Note:**

> This story fills the ´Forced to participate in an illegal action´ on my h/c bingo card. Art can be found on my LJ: http://nywcgirl.livejournal.com/51215.html

Neal was walking down the street when a couple walked towards him. Just as they would cross each other, he felt something being blown in his face, as it surprised him, he gasped, before thinking he needed to hold his breath and try not to breathe in whatever was on his face. He didn´t taste or smell anything, so he was not sure what had been blown in his face.

 

“Don´t fight it, Neal. Relax.” Someone said, before Neal blacked out.

 

* * *

 

Neal looked up when he saw Peter entering the White collar offices.

“Good morning, Peter.”

“Neal?” Peter had stopped in front of Neal´s desk.

“Yes, Peter?” Neal looked up from the file he was working on.

“I waited for you in front of June´s. She came out when she noticed my car to tell me you hadn´t been home all night.”

“Oh, sorry, I…”

“Where were you?”

“I…” Neal searched his memory but came up blank.

“Have you been drinking with Mozzie? I hope you are no longer counterfeiting booze, are you?”

“No, but yeah, I must have been with Mozzie.”

Peter studied Neal. He found it odd that there was less blue showing in Neal´s eyes. But he did seem OK. He made a mental note to keep an eye on him.

“We gather in five minutes in the conference room. Be there.”

“Sure Peter.”

Peter walked to his office, while Neal watched him walk up to his office.

 

* * *

 

Five minutes later, the case agents had gathered in the conference room and Neal was sitting in his usual spot at the end of the table.

“Our suspect is having lunch this afternoon at Le chat noir. There will be two teams. Diana and Jones will each lead a team. Diana, I give the floor to you.”

Peter gave the laser pointer to Diana and sat down near the head to the table. He studied all the agents around the table. He was proud, of all of them. He had a good team, Jones and Diana had been a good chose to start leading their own teams. He noticed Neal scratching his arms. That was strange. Neal was someone how could concentrate, he could ignore an itch. He would never openly scratch himself. Neal was listening to Diana and didn´t pay attention to Peter. He picked up his glass of water and guzzled it down. Not long after, he pulled the pitcher of water towards him and drank more.

Neal was behaving so a-typical it drew Peter´s attention. Neal was the picture boy of blending in, everything he was doing during the meeting made him stand out. The agents were all listening to Diana as she unfolded the operation, but Neal seemed restless. Or for lack of a better word, agitated.

Neal started looking back at Peter, studying him. Peter could see that he had started scratching himself again. Was it Peter´s imagination or was there even less blue in Neal´s eyes then before. Peter could see that Neal´s restlessness was building, so he stood up and slowly walked up to Neal.

Neal studied him nervously while he walked over. When he was behind Neal, he placed his hand gently on his shoulder, but still Neal almost jumped out of his skin. Which surprised Peter, Neal had seen him walk over, so how could it have caught him by surprise?

“Neal, can I talk to you for a moment?” Peter whispered in his ear.

“Sure.”

Neal got out of his chair but wavered for a moment.

“Are you alright?” Peter asked worried.

“Yeah, yeah, let´s go.” Neal whispered back.

Peter followed Neal outside the conference room, into his office. Once they were in the relative privacy of Peter´s office, Peter studied Neal more closely.

Neal was squinting his eyes as if he tried to focus, and Neal´s pupils were definitely dilated. He needed medical attention, so Peter thought it was best to call in a medic.

“Neal, sit down, I will get you something to drink.”

“Thanks, I have a dry mouth.” Neal said warily.

Peter turned around and tensed up. Behind him he had heard the distinct sound of a gun being cocked. He swallowed and slowly turned to face Neal, who was standing with his arm extended, and in his hand he was clutching a pistol.

“Neal? What are you doing?” he said calm.

Neal didn´t say anything, he just had this wild, angry look in his eyes. He was flushed, but the strange thing was, he wasn´t sweating. Not like Peter.

Neal kept squinting his eyes, and Peter got more and more convinced that Neal was forced into doing this.

“Neal, you are not well, why don´t you give me the gun?”

“Now, Peter, how would I kill you, if I gave you my weapon?”

That was a good question. One that Peter couldn´t and didn´t want to answer.

“Neal, you are not yourself. Please hand me the gun. You know this won´t end well, one way or the other.”

Neal just stared at Peter, jaw set. His cheeks looked flushed. Peter needed to think fast, he didn´t want a shoot out here in the office. What if one of the junior agents got trigger happy? Peter noticed that Neal was sort of panting like he was suffering from shortness of breath, when he started wheezing, Peter was almost sure Neal was going in anaphylactic shock. The wheezing, itching and scratching, especially the blue tinged that was creeping into Neal´s lips.

“Neal, put down the gun, I think you are going into shock. You need medical help.”

The wheezing only increased to a point where Peter was convinced Neal was going to pass out any moment. The gun was wavering in his hand. Peter could see Neal wanted to say something, but his hoarseness prevented Peter to understand what he wanted to say.

Without any warning, Neal passed out.

Peter´s heart almost stopped when the pistol hit the floor, but it didn´t fire.

Peter quickly crouched next to Neal, he felt for a pulse and when he found it, he sighed in relief. He could hear agents leaving the conference room and quickly looked around locating the gun Neal had dropped. He put it in his suit pocket.

“What happened?” Peter heard Diana ask.

“Call 911 and the medic, I called earlier, in here.”

 

* * *

 

Peter had been with Neal when he woke in the ER. He had explained to the medical staff that someone attempted to kill him and that an agent needed to be present. So he had allowed him to stay as long as he didn´t interfere with their work.

Once they had the anaphylactic shock under control, it didn´t take long for Neal to wake up, groggy, sore, but pretty much alive.

“What happened?” he croaked.

“Welcome back, you gave me quite a scar. How are you feeling?”

“OK, I guess. What happened?”

“I don´t know, you went into anaphylactic shock. But I don´t know why. Are you allergic to something?”

Neal could tell that there was more to the story.

“Just tell me Peter, something happened. It spooked you, I can tell.”

Just at that moment, the doctor signaled to Peter.

“I just have to talk a moment with the doctor. I will be right back and I will explain everything, OK?”

Neal nodded and closed his eyes.

 

* * *

 

“As you know, we ordered a tox screen, it seems your CI was drugged with Scopolamine, also known as Devil´s breath. It is a drug that is derived from the Borrachero tree, native to Colombia. It leaves victims coherent but with no free will. The drug blocks memories from forming.”

“That explains why Neal can´t remember anything.”

“Yes, he is telling you the truth, he will have no recollection of what happened under the influence of the drug.”

“OK, I will let him know. What can he expect?”

“Nothing really, the dose he received was quite high, explaining the anaphylactic shock he went into. But know that we are monitoring him, the drug should pass his system without any lasting effects. He will however have to deal with the memory loss.”

“Thanks, doctor.”

Peter walked back to Neal who seemed to be sleeping. Peter sat down waiting for Neal to be admitted. They had a lot of talking to do and he needed to find out who had done this to Neal and more important, who wanted him dead.

 

 

_To be continued?_


End file.
